Agenda, decisions and minutes

To elect a Vice-chair for 2024/25.

DECISION

To elect Councillor Rhys Tudur as Vice-chair of this Committee for 2024/25.

RESOLVED to elect Councillor Rhys Tudur as Vice-chair of this committee for 2024/25.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillors Dawn Lynne Jones, Gwynfor Owen, Llio Elenid Owen and Richard Glyn Roberts.

To receive any declarations of personal interest.

No declarations of personal interest were received.

To note any items that are a matter of urgency in the view of the Chair for consideration.

None to note.

The Chair shall propose that the minutes of the previous meeting of this committee held 18th July, 2024 be signed as a true record.

The Chair signed the minutes of the previous meeting of this committee which took place on 18 July 2024, as a true record.

Cabinet Member – Councillor Beca Brown

To consider a report on the above.

DECISION

1. To accept the report and to note the observations received.
2. To request an update on progress to the Committee in the future.

The Head of Education and the officers were welcomed to the meeting. ⁠

Submitted - a report detailing the progress of the Education Department in response to recommendations from the Estyn Report on education services in Cyngor Gwynedd (June 2023) in relation to pupils' behaviour and attendance in the county's schools.

The Head of Education gave a brief summary of the content of the report, noting that they had intended to report to the committee later on the progress in response to Estyn's third recommendation in relation to moving forward on the Department's strategic priorities.

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and offer observations. ⁠ 

Referring to paragraph 4.3 of the report, it was enquired whether the Welsh Government's Attendance Grant to target attendance improvements for specific individuals within schools was likely to continue. In response, it was noted:-

·       In terms of the Welsh Government's grants, no assurance had been given further than one year at a time.  However, as the discussions nationally with the Government highlighted that this was a national problem and that it was a national priority to get children into school, it was very unlikely that this grant would come to an end in a year.

·       Despite this, the Department was required to prepare for the possibility that the grant could come to an end, and the main discussions regarding this focused on the team's capacity and how schools responded to lack of attendance.

·       It was not possible to address the lack of attendance on the current scale with a team of 10 welfare officers, and that everyone was required to work as one to explain to the schools what their duties were to ensure that the Welfare Team could then work with a specific cohort of children whose attendance were lower than a specific threshold.

The main reason for the low attendance levels in schools was enquired. In response, it was noted:-

·       That illness was mainly reported by schools. Following the lockdown period, parents tended to keep children home from school with minor illnesses such as a cold or a headache, and it was very difficult for the Authority and the schools to challenge that.

·       The policy was revised to be able to highlight the steps that schools could take to respond to illness, especially in connection to continuous, extended or regular absences, and through the monitoring arrangement, it could be possible to identify patterns and send a welfare officer in to discuss with the parents if needed.

It was suggested that it would be useful for guidelines to be available to help parents come to a decision regarding when to keep their children at home and when to send them to school. In response, it was noted:-

·       That parents' mindset regarding when to keep their children home from school had changed since Covid, and there was more awareness by now of the possibility of spreading diseases.

·       More people worked from home since Covid and it was therefore easier for some parents to keep their  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Cabinet Member – Councillor Beca Brown

To consider a report on the above.

DECISION

1. To accept the report and to note the observations.
2. To note concern regarding the lack of resources available to move the work forward.
3. That the committee looks forward to seeing wider cooperation with the other relevant agencies.
4. To request an update to this Committee in a year.

The Early Years Service Manager was welcomed to the meeting. ⁠

Submitted – the report inviting the committee to scrutinise:-

·       What were the steps intended to take to transform education for children in their early years?⁠

·       What was the timetable and the key milestones to transform the service?

·       How was it intended to fund the transformation of the early years service?

The Early Years Service Manager provided a brief summary of the content of the report.

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and offer observations. ⁠ 

Disappointment was expressed regarding the progress of the work thus far. It was noted that the barriers in terms of staffing and funding was understood, but it was emphasised that the early years was the most important period in a child's development.

It was enquired how much close collaboration happened between the Education Department and the Children's Department because, according to the Government's definition, the early years included 0-7 years old, but there was no reference in the report to the period after the children started at school. In response, it was noted that the Early Years Unit's work programme focused on the pre-school period mainly, which was nursery education and the plans for children under 4 years old.

Reference was made to the new policy that would be coming into force next year regarding toileting, and it was enquired how they intended to pay for the provision. An enquiry was also made regarding whether a child that was not toilet trained could be deprived from going to school with their peers. In response, it was noted:

·       That the policy would expect parents to teach their children about toileting, with support provided to do so.

·       That the plan was welcomed by the schools as it re-defined the relationship between parents and school, to ensure that parents were parenting and schools were educating the children.

·       That the commitment of the Education Department and the Children's Service to the early years was substantial in terms of time and in terms of what was attempted, and was also challenging as they had to try to overturn complex systems, incorporating the health services into it too.

·       That the schools themselves paid to dispose of nappies, which was very costly for them. There would be no cost for the schools as a result of introducing the new policy as the children would be required to be toilet-trained before coming to the school, but the cost of the support through the health service etc., would come from the grants available.

An enquiry was made as to why there was not much reference to the Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin and the health service in the plans. In response, it was noted:-

·       That the relationship with the Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin was good. However, there was more work to be done to further develop that relationship, and that was part of the work currently achieved by the Early Years Unit.

·       It could be argued that Gwynedd had more Cylchoedd Meithrin than other counties, and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Cabinet Member – Councillor Menna Trenholme

To consider a report on the above.

DECISION

1. To accept the report and to note the observations received.
2. That the Committee notes concern regarding the high level of staff absences and requests that updates on the Strategy in future detail specific data, i.e. comparison over periods, etc. 

The Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and the officers were welcomed to the meeting. ⁠

Submitted - the report of the Cabinet Member for Corporate Services inviting the committee to scrutinise the staff well-being field to receive assurance that appropriate arrangements were in place and the proposed Strategy would address the challenges in terms of the after-effects of the pandemic period amongst the workforce and staff absence costs due to sickness.

The Cabinet Member set out the context and the Assistant Head of Corporate Services provided a brief summary of the content of the report.

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and offer observations. ⁠ 

It was noted that:-

·       As was always common in a staff survey, there were a lot of views in the report regarding the information and skills of middle managers, and it was noted that the Strategy was welcomed as long as it was implemented and adopted specifically by senior officers, and that the line managers, and specifically the middle managers, received regular training and leadership.

·       Although the report had quoted some words from staff to convey the feeling, it would have been beneficial to present more data and information to show the views of staff from different departments within the Council as a result of the Staff Voice Survey.

·       That the staff absences were high, and it would have been beneficial to present more information to see whether there were obvious problems in some departments, and the reasons for that.

·       The opportunity for the committee to scrutinise this field again was welcomed.

In response to the observations, it was noted that:

·       The data was certainly available. In terms of the Staff Voice Survey specifically, there was a clear message in terms of the statistics on well-being, with the well-being score lower than the jobs / services score. There was also a clear message that front-line staff were unaware of the support packages available.

·       In terms of the observations regarding managers, a healthy and satisfied workforce was now one of the 9 work streams in the Ffordd Gwynedd Plan, with another work stream related to staff and manager developments, and the Strategy would tie into that in terms of the programmes available to develop managers.

⁠It was suggested, although middle managers were experts in their field, that they were not always natural managers, and it was asked where should staff refer any concerns they had about managerial-related matters. In response, it was noted:-

·       Clearly, staff could escalate such matters within the service or the department, but, as part of the Well-being Plan, it was intended to identify well-being coordinators within each department.

·       Staff could also refer the matter to the attention of the Human Resources Service or the Whistle-blowing procedure.

It was noted that it would be interesting to see the statistics on pages 2 and 3 of the Well-being Plan over a period of 5 years to be able to compare the current situation with the situation before and during the Covid period.

The intention  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To elect 5 representatives from the Education and Economy Scrutiny Committee to attend an engagement session on 4^th December between 1.30 and 3.30pm.

DECISION

To elect Councillors Jina Gwyrfai, Elwyn Jones, Beth Lawton, Richard Glyn Roberts and Rhys Tudur to attend the engagement session to discuss Gwynedd's Education Language Policy on 4 December between 1:30 and 3:30 in the afternoon. 

The Head of Gwynedd's Immersion Education System was welcomed to the meeting. ⁠⁠

Submitted - the report inviting the committee to elect 5 members to be present in an engagement session to be held between 1:30 and 3:30 on the afternoon of 4 December to discuss and gather ideas and suggestions regarding Gwynedd's Education Language Policy, and to consider whether there was a need to amend the policy in light of the results of the 2021 Census and a number of policy developments in the language and education field on a national level.

RESOLVED to elect Councillors Jina Gwyrfai, Elwyn Jones, Beth Lawton, Richard Glyn Roberts and Rhys Tudur to attend the engagement session to discuss Gwynedd's Education Language Policy on 4 December between 1:30 and 3:30 in the afternoon.